Loverboy
by CanadiaPanda
Summary: Alfred seems to be annoyed by his work. He has to constantly go with sheriffs he's never even heard of and save towns from criminals he doesn't care about. But one day the letter he gets on a crime perks his interest. This wont end well. He just knows.
1. Chapter 1

_Dear Sir Alfred Jones,_

_Most people expect the good guy to win in everything they do. But real life doesn't seem to expect that. People die in real life. They die in the worst ways you can ever think of. In my life I've seen more hangings, brutal lynchings, decapitation, and slow painful deaths in these last few years of my work._

_But for some reason one specific crime seemed to catch my attention._

_This murder wasn't just killing people, but he (we assume it was a he, seeing the evidence they were leaving) was killing them in vile ways. Ways you should even keep from adult ears._

_But if you are so curious to know, one of the crimes was the murder of a young girl. When we found her, you could barley tell she was a girl. She was beaten, cut into, and her throat was split pretty much in half. There was a trail of blood, handprints, and scratched on a rock were the words, "Catch me if you can, Sweetheart." We assumed it was in the killers blood, seeing the girl's was oddly a lighter shade._

_There hasn't been much evidence other than the fact that there have been twelve murders overall. We all know they were him, because on every single one there was the words, somewhere, "Catch me if you can, Sweetheart." The only thing that changed was the name. A few times it had been "Sweetcheeks," "Pretty Boy," "Honeybee," and "Loverboy."_

_He knows we are on his trail, but not hot at all._

_He teases us._

_I once found several dead roses scattered across the dead body of a young boy (around 8 or 9) and his horse, both beaten bloody._

_That boy had been missing for three weeks before we found him-his mother was devastated to find him forever gone._

_That was another thing about these crimes._

_Every one of these murders had been held on missing people._

_We think he may be working with someone else._

_The person he could be working for does the kidnapping and controlling. Then, he hands them over to be brutally killed._

_We also believe that this killer knows who we are. Otherwise he probably wouldn't be writing us these little notes in neat capital letters._

_We have yet to find any other evidence. We can only wait for the next killing. Until then we can only ponder who this guy is. He's been careful not to leave any fingerprints, footprints, or anything to give himself away besides what I've mentioned._

_Until we can get further evidence, this is all I can tell you, sir._

_I hope one day you'll find interested enough in this case to join us in finding and killing the murderer._

_Sincerely,_

_Sheriff Adam Hoss._

* * *

I threw the letter down in frustration.

This was _not_ what I bargained for.

I never asked for these stupid sheriffs to send letters to me _expecting _me to drop _everything_ I was doing and go straight to a crime.

I was not some prize to give away.

Nor was I a free working man.

All these sheriffs wanted me to do the same damn thing every god damned day. Without pay. It was sickening.

But for some reason I kept looking back to this letter, over and over again.

I kept reading a certain part.

"There hasn't been much evidence other than the fact that there have been twelve murders overall. We all know they were him, because on every single one there was the words, somewhere, "Catch me if you can, Sweetheart." The only thing that changed was the name. A few times it had been "Sweetcheeks," "Pretty Boy," "Honeybee," and "Loverboy."

He knows we are on his trail, but not hot at all.

He teases us.

I once found several dead roses scattered across the dead body of a young boy (around 8 or 9) and his horse, both beaten bloody."

I couldn't stop reading it.

He teased them.

I also kept reading over the explained murder.

This killer was _brutal_ and this _did_ catch my attention.

Anyone with the will to do this and tease their followers deserved a slow death like what they had done to their victims.

At least that was my look on it.

But again with the _names._

"Sweetcheeks." "Pretty Boy." "Honeybee." "Loverboy."

Every time I read that last name, I flinched.

This could very well be someone I _knew._

That was what perked my interest the most.

I knew someone who constantly called people Loverboy.

And for some reason I felt like he was trying to say these messages to one person in particular, seeing he used "Pretty Boy" Instead of the plural, "Boys."

I sat there looking one last time over the letter before a began to write:

* * *

_Dear Sheriff Adam Hoss,_

_You have perked my curiosity._

_Meet me at your General Store tomorrow at 10._

_You'll know who I am._

_Consider yourself lucky,_

_Alfred._

* * *

**_Authors_**_** note: I really don't like putting these here. This is the only one.**_

_**The original in my text document looks so much better. Just saying. If you want the original version to read (With all the fonts, italics, and other stuff like that) please let me know and I'll email you to original document.**_

_**Chapter one.  
I'm not giving away much info, seeing this is supposed to be book like, and books don't have much author notes.  
A lot of this stuff I will be researching and playing Red Dead to figure out, so please, ignore any crap.  
I have no editor yet. If you want to help, please let me know. I would really like it if you did. Thanks.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Catch me if you can, Loverboy. I know you're on my trail now.

* * *

All five of us stared.

This was new.

* * *

_We were young, I admit that. I was only ten, and he was fifteen. Sure, five years seems like a lot, but really, we didn't care._

_We both came from good families. I from a family from the East, him from a family who settled in the west before anyone else. He had a successful farm. _

_I don't know what changed him._

_We were both generally the same. We argued when we didn't get what we wanted, and when we needed alone time, we went the same exact spot._

_We met on accident._

_I was headed out to my secret spot. My parents had been fighting once again and I was sick of hearing it. On shadow, my dark bay gelding, I had started at a full gallop. By the time I was out of the site of my house, I slowed to a walk, then gave up riding all together._

_I lead the gelding as I walked along. I kicked stones along the way, unsure exactly were I was going._

_Finally I just stopped. I pulled the reins down of the bay's neck and slumped down against one of the bare trees. I buried my face in my knees and just let myself cry._

_I couldn't hold it anymore._

_"Hey..."_

_That voice made my head snap up. My eyes were red by now and my cheeks wet from the crying. _

_"Are you alright?"_

_I just couldn't stop looking at him. He had blonde hair, green eyes, and not a mark on his face. He was sitting on top of a buckskin mare, which later would be the mother of my current horse, and was looking down at me, worry obvious on his face._

_After seeing I wouldn't respond, he dismounted and dropped the reins. He walked over and sat next to me, "My name's Arthur," he said simply._

_I saw what he was doing now. He wanted to cheer me up in the only way he knew besides directly, "Alfred." It was barley a murmur, but he seemed to understand._

_"Having family issues?" He suggested. Wow-was he psychic or something?_

_"They won't stop arguing..." I whispered, feeling the tears again._

_"I know how you feel. My parents separated when I was four. Now I'm just raised by my dad and his stupid girlfriend. I swear she's the queen of bitches, 'scuse my language." He was drawing little pictures in the sand._

_I hadn't noticed before, but as he talked I caught that he had a slight accent, "Hey. Where are you from?"_

_"I originally lived in England with my parents, but when they separated, my father took me here. It was before anyone decided to head out, so I guess we just fell in with the gist." _

_"Gist?"_

_"Oh! You're probably younger than me. Hmm... Another way to say it was we just kinda accepted the fact America was taking over the west."_

_"I see."_

_He nodded and looked up to the sky, "It's a nice day. I heard that it's supposed to rain though."_

_I nodded, "My dad keeps saying that."_

_The bay nuzzled my hand, and I went to pet it's ears. There was a long silence, but it was comforting._

_"What's his name?"_

_I jumped at his voice, forgetting he was there._

_"He doesn't have one."_

_"Then let's give him one!" He got up and went over to the bay gelding, holding out his hand. The bay sniffed it then nuzzled against it._

_"What about Noah?" Arthur asked, looking to me._

_"Isn't that name in the Bible?" I asked back, confused._

_"You caught me. But it seems like it'd fit."_

_I smiled, "Then we'll call him Noah."_

_Noah nuzzled Arthur happily, as if accepting the name._

_"What's your horse's name?" I asked._

_"Serenity." He said simply, going back to the buckskin and petting her shoulder._

_Serenity nickered and playfully nuzzled Arthur._

_After we talked a bit more, telling each other how we lived, who we knew, typical boy stuff, and finally more about ourselves. _

_Arthur was first to notice the sun beginning to set. Where had the day gone?_

_"Maybe we'll meet up again?" He asked once we were both on our horses._

_"Sure!" I smiled to him._

_"Then I'm off, see you later!" _

_I watched him go, smiling to myself before heading back to my house. Dread hit me as I realized who I was going home to._

_I didn't like my parents._

* * *

I ran my fingers over the dead rose petals. He was for sure teasing us. The murder that is.

And we now knew who the messages were directed to.

Me.

Once I joined the investigation, the messages changed. Something had been added. No one of the group liked it.

Speaking of the group, I probably should have explained who was in it.

It consisted of me, Sheriff Hoss, Deputy Thomas, and then two other volunteers from Armadillo.

Do I have to be honest with the descriptions? Yes? Okay.

Sheriff Hoss was a big man, I'll admit it. Now, I'm not saying he was fat, no way. But he was big bones and had a bit of a middle, but then again he was older than the rest of us. He had gray-white hair to his ears and a slight beard. His eyes were a dull gray as well. He was pretty featureless.

Deputy Thomas was on the thinner side. If you looked closely, you could see his ribs. Anyway, he was tanner than the others and had dark brown eyes. His hair was a dark red color. He was quiet and a bit timid, but hey, I'm not complaining.

One of the volunteers from town was named Mathew. He had darker hair and it was obvious from his looks he was Mexican. I didn't fancy him much. His eyes were so dark you couldn't tell the color and his hair was pretty shaggy.

The last one was actually my brother. Well, half brother. We both resembled our mom easily. He had blond hair with a hint of orange at the ends. His eyes were a bright blue with tinted purple. He wore glasses, and I could tell he hated them. But not much to do when you're practically blind. His name was also Matthew, but with two T's.

I guess I should explain my appearance as well. I'm on the more muscular side, according to Matthew. I had messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. I also had glasses, but I hated wearing them. I did have better eyesight than Matthew, thank the lord.

Well, back to the topic on hand. After the last investigation, we were left with a single dead rose, and no other evidence. We were all standing in front of the desk at the jail, me sitting in the chair, my feet propped up on the desk.

"Jones, get your feet off my damned desk."

I glared up from the flower at the sheriff, "I'm sorry, did you need me in this investigation? I can easily walk out on you."

He wrinkled his nose at me, "Fine, you damned ass."

I gave a smile of triumph. I always won.

_Mostly always._

* * *

_Why don't we run off? It'd be easier than living here!_

_Well, my mom would worry. Plus I have my little brother to deal with..._

_We could take him with. He wouldn't be so hard to look after. I mean, he is already 5._

_It's not that easy, Arthur._

_Hey, I'm old enough. I can get a job and fend for both of us. Besides, your brother likes me. He couldn't be so hard to convince to come with us._

_Yeah, but I said no._

_Alfred, you're being ridiculous._

_I thought you were the older one._

_Being older doesn't make you more mature._

_Touche._

_So come on! It won't be hard. I can get the money and the three of us can run off._

_Your so stubborn._

_It's 'You're'._

_Thanks for correcting me, asshole._

_No problem._

_I was being sarcastic._

_You're never sarcastic!_

_Yeah I am._

_No you aren't._

_Yes I am._

_Are not._

_Are to._

_It's too. To means a place, such as 'To the store'_

_Shut up._

_Nope! I win! Besides, when you do try to be sarcastic with me, you always fail._

_So you admit I'm sarcastic with you?_

_Fuck. You win that round, my friend._

_Always do._

_We're running away, even if I have to drag you with me._

_I'll kick you._

_I'll hog tie you._

_Fuck you. You win this round. For once. I'll talk to Matthew when I get home. He may not be too happy._

_Better or worst. I know we won't fail, Al._

_Alfred._

_Whatever._

* * *

_**Authors Note: Gonna be adding tiny authors notes at the end. Eheh.. Sorry if the last part here is hard to understand. It'll be explained next chapter.**_

**_Anyways, I want to special thank my friend Silvia (or as I call her - Kiku Honda) who has been willing to be my editor. If it wasn't for her, this whole chapter would have been a mess. When she sent me the new thing back, her corrections in red.. man. That's all I can say. _**

**_I also want a shout out to my reveiwers of the last chapter:_ TacoPorn_ (I love your user) and _HolyShitIt'sOozing._ Thank you both~_**

**_I'll update hopefully again this week, sorry for not havign one up last week. Stuff happens in life, you know?_**


	3. Chapter 3

_Every kid tries to run away once in their life. Or at least thinks about it. Me and Arthur had a whole plan laid out. We even had a back-up. Then there were two more plans if Matthew wanted to come along._

_So all together we had four plans._

_We didn't even get halfway through the first one before both our asses were beat._

_As I've said before, me and my father didn't go very well together._

_I would use a simile, but trust me, there isn't anything to compare us to. He downright hated me and I hated him._

_My mother wasn't as bad, but she still didn't get on my good side._

_So it seemed logical for me to run away, right?_

_Well, my father caught me before the plan even started, but he didn't let me know. Instead he let me humiliate myself. Then, right as I was about to leave, he showed up._

_Lets not go into detail._

_Arthur, on the other hand, had a family who was drifting out of the money. His parents were good to him but were a little too protective. It was hard enough for him to come see me everyday like we did._

_Honestly, his plan to run away was only because he wanted to show them he was able to survive on his own._

_I hadn't heard his side of the story, and honestly I didn't want to, but like me, he was caught before he could carry out his side of the plan._

_So simply put, we were both home-bound for a year and a half._

_I dreaded those months that passed. I had to help out with chores and take care of Matthew. Him and my dad didn't work well together either, but my mom loved him to death. She never let my father lay a finger on him._

_Me, on the other hand, was his personal punching bag, used to let off his frustration._

_Hell, I have scars from him._

_One day, though, my dad called my name. I dragged myself over to him, not wanting to at all. But when I saw he had two horses tacked, one of them mine, I looked at him with confusion._

_"Stop staring and get on your horse, boy." I hated his voice. I hated how low it was and how it was somewhat scratchy. I hated how his accent was slightly off. I hated that it was his voice._

_But I climbed into the saddle anyway, holding my horse to stand, "What are we doing?" I found myself asking. I rarely spoke to him, but curiosity killed the cat._

_"Kirkland's."_

_My eyes widened in surprise, "And you're taking me?"_

_"You know them better than I do. Plus, if your going to own the farm someday, you gotta know how to do business." He hadn't even looked at me as he set off._

_I kicked my horse to get going, silently thinking, but at the same time having my mind on my horse. I didn't want him bucking me off and breaking my neck. He almost did that once, believe it or not. _

_So after a while, my back aching from not riding in so long, we came to the Kirkland's home. I'll spare the details, I don't want to embarrass him. Lets just say he used to live well but things started to crumble._

_I hadn't noticed him at first, but there was a blonde-haired teen working with a mare. They both seemed so familiar. His gaze shifted for a second from the mare to us and I caught his emerald eyes staring at me._

_Oh._

_Arthur._

_He had changed._

_Though we had only been apart for a year and a half, I could see a major difference. It had been years since we first met, and I hadn't noticed his changing. But the fact of us being away from each other so long, I could see that his thin frame had gotten slightly more muscular. He was still thin, I'll admit that, but his face had changed so much in a year._

_I barley recognized him and caught myself staring. He was also staring, like he couldn't believe I was back._

_I don't know what I expected, but I didn't expect him to just give a snort, wipe off his forehead, and turn back to the mare._

_He was 17, almost 18, and I was 13. My birthday was before his, so I ended up being only four years younger at some points, but going back to five when his birthday came around._

_My heart practically sunk when I saw him turn away. I shouldn't have reacted that way, but I couldn't help myself. I thought he'd be more happy to see me._

_After a few hours of me and my father talking to Arthur's parents, doing business (No, I was not paying attention, so your assumptions are correct), I finally gave up and went outside_

_I walked around the place, having no sense of direction. I had never actually been here before, and Arthur never really talked about it, so before long I was pretty much lost between pastures._

_I was searching for Arthur, honestly. But I didn't want to admit it._

_It took me a while, but I caught site of him at one point and I hurried towards him. He was still with that mare, leading her along._

_That's when I realized that mare was actually Arthur's. It was the buckskin mare whose name was Serenity. But she looked so different. I couldn't put my finger on it._

_"Go away, Alfred." His voice caught me off guard. Man, that had changed too. I wasn't sure when he noticed me, but from the sound of it, he was not happy I had found him._

_"That's a nice greeting. After not seeing me for so long I'd think you'd be more welcoming," I put my hands on my hips, giving a fake pout._

_"Alfred, go away. I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now." He sounded... wrong. Like he was pissed off at something. I couldn't imagine what._

_"I'm not leaving."_

_"I just won't talk to you then."_

_I wasn't sure why that stung so bad. It seemed like we knew each other for forever and for once he was actually rejecting my friendship._

_"Arthur," I whined, dragging out his name. _

_He whipped around to face me, "Listen, you git, I'm not in the mood to talk to you right now and I'd really appreciate it if you would just fucking leave me alone."_

_I could tell he regretted his words as soon as he said them. I swear right then and there I looked like a kicked puppy._

_"Alfred- I didn't-"_

_I gave him no chance to explain before I whirled around and stomped off, yelling to him, "Fine! If you don't want to talk to me then don't! See how I care!"_

_We had never fought before. And it hurt. _

_I had found my way into a little stretch between the barn and a pasture. There was hay stored in a small three-walled shed. I leaned up against it, sliding to a sitting position, hugging my knees to my chest. I refused to cry. I wasn't a baby anymore._

_I don't know how long I sat there, or when I fell asleep, but suddenly my eyes opened to see two emerald ones looking at me, "Your father's looking for you, Alfred. Get up."_

_I rubbed my eyes and got up slowly, "Thanks." It was barley a murmur, but I was sure he caught it._

_"He bought two horses from us." His voice suddenly lowered, "One of which was Serenity." _

_My eyes widened, "Your horse?"_

_"Yes."_

_I looked down at my feet, just to look away from his eyes._

_"Follow me. Your father's waiting." I looked up only to see he wasn't looking at me, but had started walking. He was emotionless. I certainly didn't remember him looking or acting like this._

* * *

My thoughts shattered as something connected with the back of my head. "Stop daydreaming, Alfred. We have a task at hand here."

I rubbed the back of my head, "Seriously Matt, what did you just hit me with?"

"Paperweight." He was barley paying attention to me now, just writing stuff down on his notebook. I was sure he wasn't just writing. Probably doing some stupid doodle or something.

Don't get me wrong, my brother was awesome and all, but confined in a small space together with some... dangerous objects was not a good idea.

"Seriously, come on! I'm gonna have a bruise there, now." I continued to rub the back of my neck before smacking my hand down on the desk.

"Shouldn't have been daydreaming."

I stared at my hand, flexing my fingers.

"Fuck it, get out." Matthew barley looked at me, waving a hand lightly as if to dismiss me.

I was in his house after all.

"Don't tell me what to do." I stood up anyway. Clutching the desk as my vision blurred for a second. I'd been sitting down too long and I stood up too fast.

By now he was staring at me above his glasses rim, "Honestly, Al, I may be younger than you by several years, but I swear I'm smarter."

I rolled my eyes, "Shut it."

I left without a second glance to him. He was giving me that look of: 'Oh my God, Al, sometimes I wonder how you're related to me.'

I'm glad I left or things wouldn't have gone too well. Out in public he was quiet and barley noticed, but when it was just us, he was a pain.

I set off out of the town, leaving my horse. If you couldn't already tell, going on little trips kept my mind off of things, and on other things. I just wanted some alone time without having to watch something else. I turned the corner, past one of the stores, (Or bars. Or whatever it was.) and rammed right into someone.

I quickly reached out not only to save my balance, but to stop the kid I ran into from falling as well.

"Jesus fucking Christ, watch it!" His gaze turned to me, an icy glare.

Emerald eyes.

* * *

_**Author's Note: I'M SORRY GUYS. Long update time. I just graduated and all so I needed time to adjust to summer. I was also taken to Texas for a week and a half and just got back yesterday... err.. day before... Its 2 am. Anywho, I'm sorry for the long wait. Major writers block. Damn. I'm just glad Texas made it go away and this chapter just went on smooth sailing.**_

_**I just love cutting off chapters right at the exciting parts. The plot's gonna start to unfold now and chapters will be getting longer. Maybe 4 or 5 pages in Microsoft Word. Right now they're only around 3. This ones 3 1/4.**_

_**No editing this time, sorry. I just want to submit this asap. I'm still sending it to Kiku to fix and all then I'll repost the chapter.**_

_**EDIT: It's been fixed, a whole 12 hours later... hehe.**_

_**The stories now starting to drift to a more personal feel. At first I was just gonna let it be narrative in first person, but I feel like he should be telling the story from his point adding his own little comments and feelings.**_

_**And now to address a subject I'm getting irritated by: Personalities. Yes, I know Alfred isn't all spunky and happy. And I know kid Arthur seems a bit too... happy. But in this chapter you can see a little bit more on how I am adding their normal personalities but hidden behind somethings else. I like how Matt's personality is coming along. The others of the group will begin to show themselves more and more throughout chapters.**_

_**Jeese this ones long. But anyway, long story short, Plot's coming, I'm sorry for the wait, more chapters soon, whatever. That's for the reviews. I think I only got one new review from **_**NivalKenival**_**if I'm not mistaken. Thanks!**_

_**Something irrelevant: RSD got taken down and I didn't even know it until I checked my emails earlier. I was laughing my ass off at that. There was nothing wrong with it as far as I knew. I don't care, it was just a little test thing and my ideas went down the drain for that. But whatever. Just made me laugh.**_

_**So, see you guys next update! Follow me on tumblr and watch me on dA, same user. I'll be rather active on those sites.**_

_**EDIT: Sorry guys I forgot to re-add the linebreaks. Hehe whoops. Fixed now.**_


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